To unseat what essentially is a ghost incumbent in the 14th district of northern Illinois, Democrat Dennis Anderson has decided to take his message to the people of the district by holding 20-25 town hall meetings. In St. Charles on Tuesday, Anderson said the only thing that will prevent more meetings is securing venues to hold them.

This is Anderson’s

second run for this office and he feels he learned a lot from the previous loss to make him a much stronger candidate. Anderson, who is now retired, said he is not looking for a career in politics. He vowed to do his best to address the issues of the day and if the voters of the district liked his accomplishments they would return him to office. With approximately fifty voters in attendance, Anderson limited his opening comments to a brief history of his past. After that he began taking questions regarding his views on every possible issue facing the nation today.

Baker Community Center is Site for Open Public Forum on Tuesday, June 3

Dennis Anderson, Democratic Candidate for Illinois‘14th U.S. Congressional District, will hold a public town hall forum on June 3rd from 7:15 to 8:30 PM at The Baker Community Center, 101 S. 2nd Street. All constituents in the Tri-Cities are invited to attend and encouraged to bring questions for the candidate.

The Anderson Campaign is observing

the time-honored American tradition of the open political town hall forum as a highly effective way for candidates to directly talk to constituents regardless of party affiliation. The St. Charles Town Hall is open to all and scheduled in the evening to meet the needs of working constituents. The campaign will hold town hall meetings throughout the District for the entire the campaign season.

Throughout the country – including here in the Illinois 14th – we’ve seen a reluctance on the part of incumbents to participate in unscripted public forums with constituents, particularly in joint forums with their challengers. The Anderson Campaign believes that town halls are a valuable opportunity for candidates and constituents to meet and to hear from one another.

I don’t intend to engage in hyperbole, hysteria, or histrionics this morning – that’s apparently something that Randy Hultgren sees as his job – but I don’t want Hultgren’s vote last night to continue the government shutdown, and default on the nation’s debt, to pass unremarked.

Last night Randy Hultgren was the only member of the Illinois Congressional delegation to vote to continue the wildly expensive government shutdown.

Looks like Randy Hultgren is finally trying to make good on some of the promises and agendas he offered at an Oswego Town Hall Meeting the summer of 2012 when he said “I’m not planning on Social Security. Most people my age aren’t planning on Social Security.” At the time, Hultgren actually paused a few moments and looked around for cheers which did not come forth. His pronouncements fell on dumbfounded ears–people could hardly believe he was attacking Social Security.

But now, over a year later, Hultgren has found about fifty other like-minded people in the House of Representatives. After joining the Suicide Caucus in August to shut down our government in their effort to defund Obamacare, Hultgren has additionally joined with fifty other Republican House members to demand Boehner use the government shutdown to negotiate Social Security reductions.

In a letter drafted by Wisconsin Representative Reid Ribble, and signed by Hultgren and 49 other House Representatives, the signers demand Boehner use the “ongoing fiscal discussions” and “this window of opportunity” (i.e. government shutdown), to address the “long-term viability of Social Security.” The letter has four demands, three which would clearly lower retiree benefits. Hultgren, Ribble and the rest, call for upping the retirement age, cutting retiree benefits by changing calculations, and for using ‘means testing’ for recipients.

By now, it is quite clear Randy Hultgren has aligned himself with the far right wing Republican contingent responsible for shutting down our government and threatening the debt ceiling crisis. Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer has actually termed Hultgren and his contingent of about 79 other representatives as the “suicide caucus.”

Hultgren and the rest of the Republican politicians known as the “suicide caucus” are called that because they signed Republican Mark Meadows’ letter, known as The Meadows Letter, which demands that House Speaker Boehner pass legislation to defund the Patient’s Rights and Affordability Care Act (ACA–Obamacare) and to commit to defund the ACA by using the continuing resolution to fund the government. In other words, shut down our government.

Hultgren has voted with the rest of his Tea Party coalition to repeal Obamacare 40 times. According to a recent CBS study, each Republican vote to repeal costs all of us American taxpayers $1.45 million—for a total of about $58 million.

Question: Why would Hultgren be so focused on wasting our money to repeal a law voted in by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court?

Answer: Hultgren’s largest campaign donors come from the Securities and Investment (i.e. Insurance) industry. Check it out at OpenSecrets.org. Hultgren is protecting Insurance CEO’s paychecks at the same time he is attempting to take insurance coverage away from those who need it and billing American taxpayers millions for his efforts.

Question: So what’s so bad about Obamacare that the financial services industry wants to repeal it? After all, Obamacare just delivered millions more people into their coffers.

For the past two years we in the IL14 congressional district have had a do-nothing Republican Tea Partier as our representative in the US Congress. Due to gerrymandering, the district stretches from almost the Wisconsin border south to Yorkville, Il. On the east there’s the Fox River and the district bulges to the west occasionally but it’s a difficult district to campaign in because of the time consuming distances necessary to meet as many constituents as possible. In the 2012 election, Dennis Anderson came from out of nowhere to take 41% of the vote from a well-funded Republican (Randy Hultgren). Anyone who has been watching this useless House of Representatives knows exactly what his voting record is. This country must change the balance of power in the House and we have a truly superb candidate that will work hard for District 14 and, ultimately, all of the people of America.

I could try to paraphrase Dennis’ very impressive biography and where he stands on issues but that wouldn’t do him justice so I’m going to take the easy way out and let you read the good news. The speech was delivered on August 18th, 2013.

To donate, go to the Anderson Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dennisanderson.IL14 and click the ActBlue (AB) button or email the campaign at andersonforcongress14@gmail.com. You know the drill, volunteering and donations to help him fight for us. Dennis gives us the chance to change Congress.